[Desai]

I received a fishing email yesterday from RAC offering me a free emergency kit for the breakdown after completing a survey where are got the offer but asked for paying charges.

I suspected this must be a scam hence I did not click on accepting it.

Wonder if RAC is aware of such scam on behalf of them?

[Rolebama]

It is most definitely a phishing scam. I receive at least one email a day from the jetzky address telling me what I have won, supposedly from a variety of sources.

[Marc]

Welcome to the community @Desai 😀
I agree with @Rolebama it sounds like a phishing scam.
As with other well-known companies, scammers will be pretending to be official email comms or promos. Especially at this time of year with 'Black Friday' promos and then Christmas of course.

I would say always check the sender's email address. So often the actual address sending the promo is such an obvious giveaway.

FYI promos from the RAC will come from the address [email protected]

Hope this helps? If anyone has other suggestions for spotting scams/phishing do add them here! 🙏

[Rolebama]

I advise never to open an email if there is no sender address showing. Viruses,etc can be installed just by opening some emails.

Make sure you use the System Restore function occasionally. There are programs around that are downloaded along with programs you want, which will disable features to stop you uninstalling them. They usually tell you that you have x amount of malware and for a fee will allow you to get rid of them. As these are programs, antivirus programs do not block them, and the only way I know of getting rid of them is a System Restore.

[olduser]

Adding to Rolebama's post;

Many Email programs will shift deleted Emails into it's own Trash Can or Deleted folder, so it is still on the computer.

Restore will see this as your data and leave it alone. (see note below)

In most Email Programs, under settings you say what should be done with the contents of the Trash Can/Delete folder, something like - Clear/Empty now or Always clear when program is closed.
These actions should delete anything in the bin or folder. (I always set to delete on closing program, a hangover from the days of small hard drives)

While we talking about settings, with Email software when you look at the Inbox what you are seeing is a list of Emails on the server waiting to be downloaded to your computer, the actual Emails are not on your computer at this stage, only when you click on them to read them are they down loaded.

In Settings, you can select to delete Emails on the server after they have downloaded, otherwise they stay on the server. (if not deleted your share of the server will fill up)
Your internet provider is the usual owner of the Email server and will have provision for you to look on (your part) of the Email server, here you can read, write, and delete Emails. (access to this is usually through the broadband providers portal or home screen because you using the internet to look on the server not your Email program)

(note below)

"Here’s a brief overview of what happens when you use System Restore:

1. Restores System Files and Settings: It rolls back Windows system files and settings to the state they were in when the restore point was created.
2. Installed Programs: Programs installed after the restore point will be uninstalled. For example, if you installed a program yesterday and the last restore point was created a week ago, that program will be removed after the restore.
3. Personal Files: System Restore does not affect personal files like documents, images, and music. Those files remain intact.
4. System Updates: Any Windows updates installed after the restore point will also be removed.

To ensure you do not lose any important files or program settings, it's a good idea to back up your data before performing a system reset"
Taken from MS website.

Of course as Rolebalma says, once the virus or whatever is on your computer, they usually protect themselves against deletion.
A good security program will have a list of known viruses and will prevent them from loading or will isolate them.
The next question is does my security do this, usually it will tell you it does, and also when it has done it, and another clue, it will have regular updates which will contain any new viruses discovered?

Sorry this ended up longer than I thought.

[Drivingforfun]

I'm aware of "invisible links" within an email that you can click/tap on by accident to unwittingly install malicious programs but I've never heard of an email that can add malicious programs just by reading the email, but I might be wrong!!

One thing I would say, it's more an interest than advice, but lots of people mock the bad grammar in spam emails, but it's there for a very clever (and cruel) reason. Basically anyone who notices the grammar is clever enough to not fall for the scam so they are trying to sift those people out; the only people left who don't notice the grammar are likely to be learning impaired, disabled or very senile i.e. the kinds of people who scammers are happy to target

[olduser]

The most common way of using Emails to get malicious software onto another computer is as an Attachment.
This of course, has to be clicked on to open it, I have not come across invisible links yet.

I see no reason why the Email it's self could not be a program but the Email server may well detect this and not accept it, and reasonably good security software would be scanning the Email as it is loaded onto the computer, if it contains a new virus it may get through but the security also looks for common words or phrases that suggest ill intent.

In the past Attachments were not included in that checking, I would guess they are by now though.

The best security programs will also check if you are loading a program or malicious software is trying to load itself onto your computer, and stop proceedings and ask you what you wish to do.

One way of avoiding detection was to load into the Recovery partition which is a hidden partition usually holding data to help recovery from a crash this will fool some security programs, and something called a Root Kit used to be common but I would expect good security software to fill that space up these days. (The Root area on a disk stored information about the disk but there was some unused space, room to get a virus in or data pointing to where the virus was on the disk.)

[Drivingforfun]

Interesting, @olduser

I don't know what the proper name is, but when I said "invisible links" I meant where they basically place a transparent clickable box over the whole email with the hope that you click/tap it by accident while reading the contents of the email

I'm aware there is something else that is not considered illegal but is still a bit shady in my opinion, which is invisible "images" or images that are only one or a few pixels big, that somehow track how you interact with the email (cookies rings a bell); I think used by mailing lists so they can see how or even if their target audience is reading?

[Mark07]

Originally Posted by Desai

I received a fishing email yesterday from RAC offering me a free emergency kit for the breakdown after completing a survey where are got the offer but asked for paying charges.

I suspected this must be a scam hence I did not click on accepting it.

Your description sounds very similar to what's described in this community discussion.

As well as the advice shared above, I also recommend that you block the sender and report the email to your mailbox provider.